BRM Official Blog

Handgun maintenance helps keep revolvers and pistols at peak performance. Handgun cylinders need a smooth, clean finish that’s free from build-ups of primer, gun powder, and ammunition casing materials. Tool marks that can promote fouling and corrosion also require removal.  

Flex-Hone® for Firearms tools remove surface irregularities and impart a surface finish that holds lubrication better. Smoother, cleaner cylinders are less prone to misfeeds, stove pipes, and misfires. Plus, BRM's gun tools keep the bores of your firearms at the precise dimensions required. 

How can Flex-Hone® for Firearms tools help solve your handgun maintenance challenges? As owners of M1911 and M1917 handguns attest, flexible honing gets great results.

Slotted brake rotors contain machined grooves that help dissipate the heat that’s produced by braking. In racing, motorsports, and even regular driving, friction causes a layer of gas and dust to form between the brake pad and the brake rotor. Over time, this material transfer layer can impede performance. 

Slotted rotors help to reduce friction, but surface contact between pads and rotors eventually requires rotor resurfacing. For optimum brake performance, brake rotors require a non-directional or “basket weave” finish that’s free from deposits of brake pad material. 

To achieve this ideal finish, a do-it-yourself (DIY) mechanic recently tried the Flex-Hone® for Rotors tool from Brush Research Manufacturing (BRM). The racer who requested the resurfacing hadn’t heard of BRM’s rotor hone before, but the mechanic who used the tool gave it a thumbs-up. 

The Brush Research Manufacturing (BRM) Blog is ending the year by looking back at how we’ve helped readers find solutions to surface finishing challenges in 2017.

As a full-line manufacturer of flexible honing tools and industrial brushes, we’ve covered a variety of topics. Here are our Top 7 Blog Posts for the year.

Flex-Hone® tools are ideal for robotic deburring operations that can save manufacturers time and money. With industrial robots, end effectors grasp the Flex-Hone® by its metal stem wire and rotate the deburring tool according to programmed commands. By combining flexible honing with industrial automation, part manufacturers can combine speed and efficiency with quality, consistency, and accuracy.

The benefits of robotic deburring with Flex-Hone® tools don’t stop there. No matter how you use them – with a handheld drill, drill press, CNC machine, or other rotating spindle – Flex-Hone® technology imparts the ideal surface finish to cylinder walls. Flexible hones from Brush Research Manufacturing (BRM) also remove burrs from cross-drilled holes.

Let’s take a closer look at why Flex-Hone® tools are ideal for robotic deburring.

Wire end brushes are power brushes with metal filaments that can reach small, tight, and hard-to-reach spaces. They’re great for cleaning, blending, polishing, deburring, and surface finishing recessed areas. Applications for these power-driven brushing tools include cleaning parts, polishing dies, and removing carbon deposits from cylinder heads and valve seats.

For brush buyers and users, choosing the right type of wire end brush means asking and answering a series of questions. Which filament material do you need? Do you need a tool with a standard or banded body, or a brush with a protective coated cup instead? You’ll also need to choose solid wires or knotted wires, or select a circular flared brush.

Manufacturers, machinists, and metalworkers want to know which type of cylinder hone is the right choice for their application. Flex-Hone® tools from Brush Research Manufacturing (BRM) are great for deglazing the walls of cylinders that aren’t out-of-round. Flexible hones are also ideal for surface finishing bores that have been honed to size with a rigid hone.    

Rigid hones are recommended for some applications, but flexible hones are the right choice for cylinders that don’t require initial honing, resizing, or geometry correction. With their low-temperature, low-pressure abrading process, Flex-Hone® tools won’t remove significant amounts of material. Rather, flexible hones impart the ideal final finish – a plateau finish. Flexible hones are great for cross-hole deburring, too.

Flexible honing offers numerous advantages, but here are five reasons to use Flex-Hone® tools instead of rigid hones.

Tube brushes are industrial brushing tools for cleaning the inside of holes and other hard-to-reach areas.  Applications include removing chips, dirt, oil, rust, and corrosion. Filament types vary, but include stainless steel, carbon steel, brass, nylon, and natural bristle.

Brush Research Manufacturing (BRM) supplies many different types of tube brushes, but Series 84 tools are a great choice for cleaning through-holes. These ring-handled brushes are built for manual use, but the rings can be cut-off to allow these tube brushes to be power-driven.

No matter how you use them, Series 84 tube brushes get strong results when you follow these three tips.

Pneumatic cylinders are fluid power devices that use a compressed gas such as air to move a piston in a reciprocating, linear motion. If the walls of a pneumatic cylinder are too smooth, there’s higher friction between the O-rings and bore surfaces. If the walls of a pneumatic cylinder are too rough, burrs and other surface irregularities can shear softer seal materials. 

To protect the integrity of pneumatic cylinders, manufacturers and maintenance technicians need to ensure that bores have a proper surface finish. The Flex-Hone® tool from Brush Research Manufacturing (BRM) removes burrs and improves surface condition at the same time. Suitable for any type or size cylinder, these flexible honing tools also support cylinder sealing and lubrication. 

BRM Flex-Hone® tools come in 10 abrasive types and 11 grit sizes. When it's time to select and use a flexible cylinder hone, remember these two rules about deburring and surface finishing. 

• The base material of your workpiece determines which abrasive type to select.  
• The amount of work to perform and the degree of surface improvement that’s required determines which grit size – or sizes – to use.

Here’s what else you need to know about abrasives and grits for Flex-Hone® tools.

Wheel brushes are wheel-shaped brushing tools for deburring and surface finishing machined parts. These power brushes are also used for outer diameter (OD) applications such as parts cleaning, polishing, and edge radiusing.

As a full-line manufacturer of surface finishing and deburring tools, Brush Research Manufacturing (BRM) supplies may different types of wheel brushes, including NamPower nylon abrasive wheels with silicon carbide or diamond abrasive filaments. 

So which filament type is right for harder materials? Once you've selected the abrasive that's right for your application, what do you need to know about specifying the brush diameter and face width?